Very much deserved honour for Christopher and also again a mention of the Tolkien exhibition at the Bodleian in 2018.

"Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian, said: "Christopher Tolkien’s contribution as a scholar and editor has been immense. Without his dedication and commitment, his father’s works would not have reached such a broad public audience and without his erudition and scholarship J R R Tolkien’s work would not have been presented so fully and with such authority."

Christopher Tolkien said: "Although I have never looked for anything remotely of such a kind, I find it especially welcome to receive the Bodley Medal in that it affirms the unique significance of my father's creation and accords a worthy place in the Republic of Letters to Tolkien scholarship. It gives me particular pleasure that the award comes from and is conceived by the Bodleian, where a great part of my father's manuscripts lie and where I have happy memories of the great library itself."

The Bodleian Libraries house the largest collection of original Tolkien manuscripts and drawings in the world. The Tolkien Archive has been kept at the Bodleian since 1979. The latest addition to the archive is a rare map of Middle-earth annotated by the author, which was acquired in May 2016. The Bodleian is currently developing a major Tolkien exhibition, which will open at the Weston Library in 2018.

Past winners of the medal include classicist Professor Mary Beard, physicist Professor Stephen Hawking, theatre and film director Sir Nicholas Hytner, novelist Hilary Mantel, writer and actor Alan Bennett and inventor of the World Wide Web Sir Tim Berners-Lee."

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/chr ... arded-bodley-medal-424211